Coyote, Trans Preserve, Vernal Pool Trails

Use your imagination and step back a century and a half in time to an era when Santa Rosa Plateau was part of the 47,000-acre Rancho Santa Rosa granted to cattle rancher Juan Moreno by Governor Pio Pico. The adobes dating from 1845 that you’ll visit on this hike will certainly help you imagine mid-19th century California.

Fortunately for those of us who would like a glimpse into that bygone era, the landowners following Juan Moreno did little to this early California landscape of oak woodlands, rolling grasslands and vernal pools but use it for grazing cattle. The relatively gentle use of the land is in part responsible for the remarkable biodiversity flourishing on the Santa Rosa Plateau today. By some estimates, the plateau hosts about half of all the species of plants and animals considered to be rare in the Inland Empire.